


Smile

by protectoroffaeries



Series: High School AU Stories [2]
Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: M/M, these two melt my soul okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 07:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7258639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectoroffaeries/pseuds/protectoroffaeries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Larrikin wants to know why Anton is smiling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smile

**Author's Note:**

> I have been trying to write all day, and my muse showed up right before I was about to give up for the night, and that is why it is nearly 2 am and I've just finished a fic. I hate writer's block. 
> 
> Buttttttt I love Larrikin. He is too precious. And in this instance he loves Anton, so we're good. 
> 
> Also, they're teenagers, this is part of the high school au. I never specified a time when this happens, nor did I reference the main fic I have for this series. Insert it somewhere, if it makes you happy.

Larrikin was intrigued by Anton Shudder from the moment they met. Anton just looked tall, dark, and dangerous. Larrikin liked tall, dark, and dangerous, which was probably why his ex tried to stab him in the school restroom. Didn’t change his taste in men. The whole experience had actually been pretty thrilling, honestly. 

But Anton wasn’t going to stab in the bathroom. If Anton ever snapped and tried to kill Larrikin, he’d probably strangle him with his bare hands. Not that Larrikin thought that was going to happen. Most likely. Anton seemed pretty stable. 

He also seemed oddly willing to put up with Larrikin’s eccentric personality, though he tried to mask it by telling Larrikin off or acting indifferent. Mostly by acting indifferent. That, as far as Larrikin could tell, was Anton’s favorite coping method. 

So Larrikin was both very confused and yet still intrigued when Anton showed up to school one day and smiled, and then kept smiling. 

“What’s up with you?”

“Larrikin, we are in class,” Anton hissed. He kept his eyes glued on their teacher, but that little smile still graced his features. Larrikin wanted to know why.

“And you’re smiling. Why are you smiling? You never smile.”

Anton glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “I smile.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I do. Now pay attention.”

“Not until you tell me why you’re smiling.”

Anton sighed heavily. It was a special sigh, one he only did in response to Larrikin’s antics. Larrikin loved that sigh. “You are perseverating.”

“And you’re smiling.”

“Mr. Larrikin,” boomed Mr. Bliss, their Algebra II teacher. Larrikin jumped in his seat; normally, he didn’t give teachers the time of day, but Bliss was a mountain of a man. He had a presence even Larrikin couldn’t ignore. And he was China Sorrows’ older brother, so Larrikin half expected him to slap a bitch out of nowhere like his sister sometimes did. A slap from Mr. Bliss would probably cause the side of his face to cave in. Anton was right about that not talking thing, Larrikin concluded. 

“Mr. Bliss,” he responded as diplomatically as he could manage, which wasn’t very, as all he was doing was saying the man’s name. 

Bliss narrowed his ice blue eyes. Larrikin gulped. Anton, predictably, sighed again. “Is there a problem?”

“Nope, nadda, nein.” Larrikin shook his head feverantly. “No problem-o, uh, sir.” 

“Actually, there is a problem,” Anton interrupted. Ah. So that was how Anton was going to kill him. Talk someone else into doing the dirty work. Smart. 

Larrikin scrambled for something to say, but his brain told him to shut up, and it rarely did that even when shutting up was the wise thing to do, so he assumed survival instincts had taken root and wisely chose to continue looking back and forth between Anton and Mr. Bliss. 

“And what is that, Mr. Shudder?” Bliss’s gaze shifted to Anton. Larrikin let out a breath of relief, but apparently it was too loud because Bliss’s eyes darted back to him and nearly gave him a heart attack. 

Instead of replying, Anton stood up and strode to the front of the room. He whispered something to Bliss, who, instead of ripping out Anton’s spleen, like Larrikin expected, nodded calmly. How Anton did that, Larrikin didn’t know, but it made his heart beat a little faster. And his heart was already beating pretty fast from that heart attack Bliss had nearly given him, so the speed was rather impressive. 

“Larrikin,” Bliss said when Anton was done playing snake charmer. “Go with Shudder. Return quickly.”

Larrikin didn’t know what he and Anton were doing, but he was out of his seat before Bliss had finished talking. He’d ask Anton about the escape in a minute. Once they were out of the range of that icy stare. 

Naturally, Larrikin had to go and trip over a chair on his way out, earning himself a glare from Bliss and an actual disappointed head shake from Anton. He practically ran into the hall before he could dig himself an even deeper hole. 

“Where are we going?” he whispered to Anton as he walked as quickly as he could away from the classroom. Anton kept up with him easily, the perk of being inches taller. 

“I told him you had ADHD and that you were bothering me because you forgot to take your medication,” Anton explained. “I also mentioned that the nurse has some of your pills.”

Larrikin blinked. “I don’t have ADHD.”  
Anton gave him an unimpressed look. “At times, you act like you could have it, and that was enough for me to get you out of the classroom today.” 

Larrikin considered it. He was easily distracted, sure, and maybe fidgety sometimes, but that wasn’t really ADHD, was it? He’d always thought of them as symptoms of boredom. He was still pretty sure they were just symptoms of boredom. 

“He thought I’d need you as an escort to the nurse’s office?”

Again with the unimpressed look. “You aren’t known for making good choices, Larrikin.”

“I know, I know, I’m known for punching a chick in the face,” Larrikin muttered. “She had it coming, though.”

“You’re known for being a reckless delinquent,” Anton countered. “Punching Eliza is only part of that.”

“I only went to juvie twice, I’ll have you know,” Larrikin insisted. And really, it wasn’t so bad, because he went for being a thief as opposed to being addicted to drugs or hurting someone so terribly that they had actual grounds to arrest him. His little sister needed some winter clothing, but apparently he’d picked the house with the unsympathetic people. “Get a job,” they’d barked at them, but he’d like to see them provide for a six year old on a Burger King salary. 

It’d actually been good for Annamarie anyway, because with Larrikin in jail (“juvenile detention”), all Marisol’s money had gone solely to her upbringing. 

“And what did you do?”

“I stole some stuff.”

“Why?”

“For Annie.”

Anton didn’t say anything to that. He just kept walking, until they got to the restrooms. He went in the boys’ and Larrikin followed. 

“You could’ve just asked Bliss if you could go take a piss,” Larrikin commented idly.

“I don’t have to use the toilet. I did, however, save you from his wrath. You could do to be more grateful.” Anton was smiling again. Larrikin wondered if he was smiling because of whatever caused him to smile before, or he was smiling at Larrikin, which he never did. 

“Why are you smiling?”

“Why can I not just smile?”

“You can, so long as you tell me why.”

“Earlier, I was smiling because my sister announced today that she is pregnant,” Anton said, “and she is happy, healthy, financially stable, and married to someone who I am confident will not abandon her. She is everything my parents were not, and I am glad she did not follow their example. Also, I am excited to become an uncle.”

“Oh. Well. Congrats, Uncle Anton,” Larrikin said, a smile of his own spreading across his face. 

“Thank you. I hope that was enough to quell your curiosity.”

“Nope,” Larrikin popped the ‘p’. “Because you said earlier. Which means there’s a different reason for why you were smiling just now.” And Larrikin certainly was hoping that reason was he himself. This was going so much better than the last time he was alone in the school restroom with a guy. 

“Larrikin-”

“Anton.”

Anton sighed Larrikin’s special sigh again. “I was smiling because you are absolutely insufferable, and yet I can’t seem to find it myself to leave you be.” The little smile was still there. 

“I don’t want you to leave me,” Larrikin said, even though he knew Anton was saying something halfway to heartfelt. He didn’t know why, but he grabbed the words ‘leave’ and ‘you’ and forgot any other sentiment. There was something wrong with him, probably. Probably wasn’t ADHD, though. 

“Larrikin, look at me,” Anton said gently. He tapped Larrikin on the chin, and Larrikin tilted his head back enough to make eye contact. “I didn’t mean it like that.” Anton’s smile was gone now. Larrikin had made it go away. It was his only talent, really - fucking things up.

“I’m sorry,” Larrikin tried to say, and then he realized he was crying, and it was just as well that he more emotional than a menstruating preteen because that was about the only thing that could make things worse. 

“Larrikin, you have nothing to be sorry for,” Anton said firmly. “My comment was… in poor taste. I’m the one that should be sorry. You are not insufferable. You are my friend.”

“I love you,” Larrikin whimpered.  
Anton froze, his hand still hovering beneath Larrikin’s chin. He slowly started to shake his head, like he was trying to shake away the shock or the emotion or Larrikin, whatever it was he didn’t want to plague him. He dropped his hand, and it fell back to his side.

“Now is not the time or the place,” Anton began, and of course, of course. 

Larrikin started laughing, and Anton stopped talking. He did look a bit concerned, but Larrikin just kept laughing and crying because he was a goddamn mess, and didn’t Anton just say that he didn’t like messes? At least, indirectly, right, because he was glad his sister wasn’t a mess like his parents were, and good God, Larrikin was a mess.

“There’s never really a convenient time or place for unrequited love, though, is there?” Larrikin asked once he regained enough control over himself to stop laughing hysterically. Anton was eying him with caution. Because he was crazy, Larrikin was. Crazy. 

“Larrikin-”

“No, no, no,” Larrikin singsonged, tears still running down his face. “Shut up. I love you, you stonefaced dick. I don’t care if you don’t love me, aren’t even attracted to men, whatever. I’ve already said too much so I might as well go all the-”

Anton interrupted him by kissing him. It was actually a terrible kiss, all things considered. Their noses were bumped together awkwardly, and Larrikin was 100% positive this was Anton’s first kiss, and Anton was holding him too tightly by the shoulders, and Larrikin’s tears were between them. 

It did achieve the intended purpose of shutting Larrikin up, though. 

“You kiss me,” Larrikin said.

“You were not letting me speak,” replied Anton calmly, “actions speak louder than words anyway, or is that not what they’re always telling us.”

“Yeah,” Larrikin agreed. He felt dazed. “Was that your first kiss?”

Anton frowned. “It was.”

“I could tell.”

“Perhaps you could help me improve my technique,” Anton suggested. 

Larrikin grinned and leaned in for another kiss, but Anton pulled away. Before Larrikin had time to feel hurt, Anton said, “I meant it when I said now wasn’t the right time or place.”  
“You brought us here!”

“I was not expecting spontaneous declarations of love when I brought you here, Larrikin.”

Larrikin blushed, then tried to play it off. “Really? You weren’t hoping that your first kiss would be in a shitty high school restroom?”

“I was not.”

“Weird.” Larrikin hugged him. “I’m sorry I got stupid there for a minute.”

Anton, for the first time, actually hugged him back. Normally, he just sort of went limp until Larrikin let him go. Larrikin wondered if that was his first hug, too. It was just about as awkward as his first kiss. “Larrikin… we’ll have to talk about this later, you realize.”

“I know.” Anton probably didn’t exactly love him yet. That was okay. It took a lot to love someone. 

“And we have to go back to class.”

“Right. Bliss might kill us if we just disappear.”

“Yes. But we will talk.”

“Talking is good.” Larrikin smiled into Anton’s shirt, and even though he couldn’t see Anton’s face, he had a feeling Anton was smiling, too.


End file.
